Newton's laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Newtons laws - Essay ExampleNewtons laws of motion (law of inertia, fundamental law of dynamics, law of multiplicative inverse actions) were verified by experiment and observation for over 200 years, and they are excellent approximations at the scales and speeds of casual life. At the atomic scale, they become a poorer approximation to quantum mechanics, and at speeds comparable to the speed of light, they become a poorer approximation to relativity. Just as they cash in ones chips for material objects moving at speeds close to the speed of light, they fail for light itself.Newtons first law appeared to be in the past just a special illustration of the second law, and it was thought Newton stated the first law separately simply in put in to throw down the gauntlet to the Aristotelians. However, modern physicists think that the First Law defines the reference frames in which the early(a) two laws are valid. These reference frames are called inertial reference frames or Galilean reference frames, and are moving at constant velocity, that is to say, without acceleration. (Note that an object may have a constant speed done its motion path and yet have a non-zero acceleration, as in the case of uniform round motion. This means that the surface of the Earth is not an inertial reference frame, since the Earth is rotating on its axis and orbits more or less the Sun. However, for many experiments, the Earths surface can safely be assumed to be inertial. The law of gravity became Sir Isaac Newtons known discovery. Newton warned against using it to view the universe as a mere machine, like a capacious clock.